Consternation
by Lotho's Cute Villainess Minion
Summary: In response to Vee4’s challenge - I challenge there to be writ the most obscure Ponder slash pairing you (the writer) can think of. A trip to Lancre, the reminder of a near forgotten could-be-a-small-romance-under-dim-light...


Title: Consternation Author: LCVM / Jess Rating: PG Pairing: Ponder Stibbons / Shawn Ogg, with just a little Adrian Turnipseed / Agnes Nitt thrown in to make everything just a little more interesting. Note: In response to Vee's challenge, with the most obscure slash pairing I could think of.  
  
*  
  
The landscape passed the carriage in which Ponder was seated by, the motion hardly smooth as he had hoped, by in a series of jolts and bumps. It was making him feel sick. He was sure, however, that it wasn't just the effect of the trip unsettling his stomach. A certain amount of consternation had burrowed under his skin regarding the journey to Lancre, and he had a feeling he knew why. A lot of it was due to the events of the past few weeks.  
  
It had taken him quite by surprise when Adrian Turnipseed, a friend who he had thought told him everything, had announced without any sort of forewarning that he was intending to marry someone. A girl, that is. A quite heavyset girl from faraway Lancre - Ponder thought that he might have encountered her once on his unfortunate previous journey to that small kingdom, though he had no idea how she and Adrian knew one another - and that had gotten him thinking. To be precise, about someone else he had met last time he was in the kingdom.  
  
Perhaps it was Adrian's dual excitement and nervousness about the wedding rubbing off on him a little; perhaps it was just the feeling of loneliness when it struck him that he was going to be losing his best friend to this far off kingdom. More likely, it was the subtle reminder of someone he had almost convinced himself to forget. It was hard enough to push the encounter to the back of his mind in the first place, but ever since Adrian reminded him of it, it was impossible to ignore.  
  
Nothing bad - as such - had happened with him... it was really just a matter of not wanting the Archchancellor to discover that he was being non- wizardly when it came to chastity in mind and body, or whatever it was. Admittedly, mucking around with Hex didn't involve especially large amounts of magic so that wouldn't be an especially big problem, but... there was some sort of principle involved, and it all came down to the one thing - wizards didn't harbour any romantic feelings towards others unless they were intending to give up wizarding. Ponder had no intention of giving up wizarding for someone he wasn't certain he'd ever see again, so he'd pushed the thoughts to the back of his mind.  
  
That wasn't entirely accurate, and he knew it. He didn't really give a damn if harbouring romantic feelings for someone interfered with his magic. The real reason he had shoved these thoughts to the very back of his mind was because he was afraid. Afraid that even though all his life he'd found young girls to be the biggest distractions romantically speaking, this had changed when he met Shawn Ogg.  
  
Shawn Ogg... the thought of the name sent small shivers up his spine. Was that how love felt, how Adrian felt for his fiancé? To feel a thrilling shiver whenever their name was mentioned, to spend each day apart from them wanting nothing else but to be by their side? How could he be sure to know whether or not he was in love? After all, they had only met once, for just moments - long enough for a dramatic eyes meeting across a crowded room scene, and long enough to find out his name, but alas, not long enough to find out anything about him, other than that he was the youngest son of the dirty old lady, and the general jobs-no one-else-will-do man around the palace.  
  
The carriage began to slow, and, praying for his upset stomach, Ponder dared peek out the window. His stomach fluttered, though not from motion sickness, and his heart skipped a beat. There, uncomfortably shifting in one of his many uniforms was Him. Shawn Ogg. The carriage halted, and the door opened. Adrian stepped out and, slowly and uncertainly, Ponder followed.  
  
"Er... Miss Nitt wanted me to welcome you to Lan...cre..." Shawn trailed off as he recognised the latter of the two; his jaw dropped slightly in surprise, though he quickly closed his mouth again. Adrian looked between the two for a moment, before subtly departing. Ponder and Shawn continued to just stare at each other. "...'Sbeen a while." Shawn finally spoke.  
  
"Yeah, it has..."  
  
Shawn paused for just a moment, looking at Ponder in silence before he responded. "What's your name?" He asked, a little embarrassed, perhaps because he felt he should have known.  
  
"Ponder Stibbons. Adrian Turnipseed was... is my best friend. I came for the wedding... and I was hoping to see you." He tried to be casual and flippant in this, but his emotions came across all too well in his speech and his expression - his pain at possibly losing his best friend to a young lady, his nervousness and embarrassment at facing his love interest.  
  
He didn't have much of a chance to do anything else, though this could be mostly due to the fact that it is very hard to say or do anything coherently when someone is suddenly kissing you. It took quite some time for Ponder to fully realise what was going on, and by that time Shawn had pulled away from him. "Sorry..." His gaze turned to the ground. "Our mum once told me that the best way to tell someone how you feel was to just show them. O'course, our mum also spends a lot of her time singing rude songs about wizards' staffs - no offence to your wizarding, that is - and hedgehogs, so I'm not really sure that her advice is all that good. I didn't mean to of-"  
  
This time it was Shawn who was unable to continue, and for very much the same reason. When they parted, Ponder spoke before Shawn has a chance to continue. "Shawn..." He whispered, leaning forward for another kiss. "Just shut up, will you?" 


End file.
